


The Light Before Dawn

by alienstereotype



Series: TLBD (Extended Universe) [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, POV Multiple, Pack Dynamics, Past Abuse, Werewolf Mates, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-25
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-01-05 08:31:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12186537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alienstereotype/pseuds/alienstereotype
Summary: I'm not good with summaries so idk check the tags and read the first chapter to see if it's your thing? I promise I'm more eloquent than this lol





	1. Don't Walk Into Danger

A long time ago, before it all went to shit, Asha had been told by her sister to never let fear get in the way of her goals, "unless the goal is stupid and what you're feeling is actually common sense, of course". 

Her sister was dead now, but the words still made her question if using fear as fuel counted as bravery or if she had finally gone insane.

She was currently in foreign territory, limping her way through the woods, and hoping the heavy rain which soaked her fur would disguise her scent enough for her to pass through. She needed sleep, food, or maybe even some divine intervention, but all she had was the pain from her poorly-healed left leg, and a tight feeling in her chest reminding her that stopping meant death. Or worse.

So she kept moving, unwilling to give up and let her own tiredness defeat her after she managed to get so far, the furthest she’s ever been.

The river she had followed before the rain started had fallen out of her hearing range about two hours ago, but now she could swear the sound was back. Weaker, more similar to a stream she used to swim in as a kid than the merciless monstrosity she had nearly drowned in yesterday. 

Asha tried to think of the maps she could remember. 

She knew the river bifurcated at some point, one end sped down until it became a waterfall while another, less voluminous, ended on a supposedly cursed lake.

There should be a city seventy kilometers west from said lake and nothing but quiet trees and even quieter rocks in between. However, if she focused enough on her senses, there was something moving north of her current location.

Fear made her move faster, trying to increase the distance between her and the source. She shouldn’t be hearing anything other than animals taking shelter from the rain, but the sound was undeniably getting closer.

It didn’t take long for it to catch up to her. 

It was a large creature, running parallel to her right just as something else approached from her left, the latter too silent under the rain to be detected until now, while it was close enough that she could see its rust-colored fur. Both were wolves, like her.

The one to the right came to her field of vision, its black coat making Asha tremble before realizing the scent didn’t belong to anyone she knew. She didn’t have time to feel relieved though.

Its eyes locked on hers, making her head hurt as a woman’s voice filled her mind.

“You’re trespassing.” The black she-wolf’s words were dipped in aggression.

It had been a while since she last shared this type of temporary bond with someone and the invasion only served to intensify her fear.

A third wolf joined them, this time coming from behind her. This one was a little slower than the rest, but still kept up with them all enough for it to be claustrophobic. Forward was the only clear direction and she hated how much it felt like being prey. 

Her pack always turned strays into a hunting game, she didn’t want to know what this one would do.

“Either stop running or go back to where you came from.” The black wolf said “We’ll take you down if you don’t.”

There was no way Asha could do either of those things; she didn’t reply.

“I mean it, little girl.” the voice sounded almost satisfied, as if hoping for a fight. It made her skin crawl. “Last chance.”

“Just leave me alone” she growled at them, picking up speed only to be forced to a halt when the rusty wolf left her side and moved ahead of her, blocking her path.

Asha slipped on the mud, the pain in her leg increasing with the awkward landing as she crashed into the young wolf. They were tangled for a few seconds and he seemed to be trying to step over her to get up, the weight and restriction far too familiar for comfort.

There was a bite to her right ankle when she tried to roll away from him, she kicked and shoved and heard him whimper- or maybe that was her- when her left paw hit his brow, nearly missing an eye. 

She kicked again, hitting his muzzle this time and taking his delayed reaction as an opportunity to pounce on him with as much strength as she could. He fell back, body going still to the sound of a thud coming from the tree directly beside him, but Asha had no time to process what happened.

Teeth sunk into her nape, ripping fur and flesh as the black wolf bit her. It was too heavy, too painful, too much. She howled in pain, crushed under the bigger wolf no matter how much she struggled to get up.

“Stop. Fighting.” The creature snarled above her, a sound muffled by the sudden howl that came from the remaining wolf she hadn’t seen until now.

This one was grey, as massive as the she wolf and equally unsettling. There was no emotion in his golden eyes when he turned to her.

“You can’t win this.” He said. She didn’t have to know them to understand his howl had been a backup request.

The black wolf emphasized his words by dragging her paws down Asha’s side, claws digging into the soft fur and making her thrash around even more as the pain took away her ability to think of anything else.

“Shift back.” The grey wolf ordered, but she couldn’t do that.

Her current vulnerable state wasn’t even close to how exposed she’d be in the other form, it would hurt too much to turn human and she was too exhausted to have any guarantee it wouldn't knock her out. Just as she had no guarantee they wouldn’t torture her or send her back to her pack.

The she wolf pressed further, as if thinking the violence of it alone could force Asha’s transformation to dissolve. Then the pain was interrupted by a low, drawn out bark, a warning coming from the grey wolf. 

The grip of the jaw on Asha’s skin loosened enough for her to push and get away from the black wolf’s range. 

Asha felt dizzy while forcing herself to keep standing, her stomach threatened to push nothing out and the taste of bile in her mouth only increased her panic.

The rain masked every scent, clouded every noise, but she could tell that the other wolves were close. 

“Don't make things worse for yourself.” The black wolf didn't seem to try not to sound condescending as she circled around like cats did to mice. Meanwhile, the other one simply glared, as if the whole situation was a slightly complicated math equation.

Asha wouldn't just stand there and wait for the rest of their pack to join in.

She dashed again, more than aware of how useless and pathetic it was to try to distance herself from them. Her limbs were already so tired that even the simplest of movements felt like pulling concrete underwater, all of it worsened by her injures.

The grey wolf caught up with her soon enough, so she moved towards him instead, with no real plan beyond the need to attack before he could hurt her like the other one.

She didn't even get the chance to touch him though; a fourth wolf tackled her left side. 

The impact spread a blinding pain through her already achy leg and, despite never having been run over by a car, she supposed this was far worse because there were claws involved.

This wolf seemed to latch onto her while the ground underneath her stopped being leveled, she no longer had the energy to bite or push while they began rolling down what felt like a slope. Her body crushed anything in their path, dragging against the earth as if he was purposefully making her take all the impact on the way down. 

And just as she thought it would never be over, they reached the bottom with a final thud. 

Asha made no effort to free herself from under him while everything hurt and her blood mixed with the mud below. Still, he growled at her, impossible to ignore despite her exhaustion, and enraged enough to remind her of her place as an intruder and a stray.

So she showed her throat to him, like waving a white flag, and would've even exposed her stomach had he not been standing over her already.

His weight didn't bother her half as much as the black wolf’s did, but she was too afraid to open her eyes and see the teeth that were likely inches away from her muzzle. 

This was the end, she was sure of it when his growling stopped and he moved closer.

Asha waited for pain as she heard him breathe close to her ear, but he sniffed her wound instead of biting over it. A distressed whimper filled the air as if he hadn't been lashing out at her a moment ago.

Then sniffing turned into a frantic nuzzling of her jaw and she was finally forced to open her eyes.

“If you're gonna kill me, do it fast.” Asha meant to say when they looked at each other, but the words might have reached him out of order, or as no more than a nonverbal concept. A thought that was far too human and fell out of focus in her current mind, the wolf drowned it with something else.

She knew him. 

Not as someone she had met before, but as a feeling, like the familiarity of seeing a part of herself. Asha couldn’t look away from his face, knowing exactly what this meant despite never having experienced it before.

He looked… confused, worried even. His golden eyes no longer held the anger she had felt from his growls, and, in the absence of it, his calming presence tricked her instincts into thinking she was safe. 

Without the urgency to fight, exhaustion caught up to her; his brown fur was the last thing she saw before pain and all her senses were swallowed by numbness.

 

\---------

 

If anyone asked Nathan how he thought he would meet his soulmate, his answer would've been a boring "Maybe at a park? On a sunny day, please. Or an interpack meeting, that would be cool”. To say he was surprised with the current circumstances was an understatement.

He stared down at the unconscious sand-colored wolf under him. The scent of her blood permeated the air, making every instinct he had scream at him to act and fix everything somehow. This was his mate, and he was one of the reasons she was hurt.

There were sixteen of his people in the woods now, himself included, and the overload of their thoughts made him sigh. Every single one of them was annoyingly curious, asking each other what happened and what Nathan would do to her, when the main focus of anyone who hadn't been involved in the fight should be searching the territory for more intruders.

“You heard him.” Theo, one of his betas, turned the idea into an order. “Pair up and look around.” 

Soon enough, the twelve other wolves connected in this part of the woods were far enough from reach that Nathan could organize his own thoughts again; the main one being “What the fuck?”

He felt Collin’s disoriented presence in the back of his mind as the teenager came to, and his sister's concern as she paced down the muddy slope to check on him.

She poked his consciousness, her worry for his well-being deep in his head through their bond, and, along with the non-verbal question, he could pick up on her disgust at having a rogue wolf’s blood in her mouth.

“I’m fine.” He replied. 

Part of him wanted to be angry at how violently Kaya had handled his mate, but, since he had practically dragged the intruder down near the naiads’ lake, with the full intent of subduing, he couldn't complain. Using the land to end the fight had, unfortunately, worked just as well as he planned.

Pack was always the priority anyway.

His mind flickered with images of Collin’s lack of fighting experience and how they let him attack alone. “Unacceptable.” He focused the single word as he glared at his sister. Collin was practically a kid, he could've died tonight.

Kaya dismissed the possibility with an eye roll, an insolent gesture that Nathan could chide her for, but that seemed insignificant while he attempted to lick his mate’s wounds clean.

Collin pulled his attention to show it had been his own idea to go first. “I'm the fastest!” He said, the words messily pushed into their minds, whether from the teenager’s lack of control over the wolf or a likely concussion, Nathan didn't know.

“I gave Collin permission.” Kaya told him, not willing to admit the carelessness of the decision even though he could feel she regretted it as much as her pride allowed "He needs experience and we needed to see if she'd be a challenge." 

He decided to let it slide. Despite being a beta, his sister was as easy to argue with as a mountain.

He focused on Theo, the reasonable one. They could see Collin’s instinct-blurred memories of the fight, along with a shameless apology for the recklessness. It was a little confusing, just unprocessed wolf thinking, which meant he'd better shift and go to Doctor Labaki already.

“Hitting your head has worsened your lack of control, kid.” Theo agreed, no venom in his blunt words while he helped Collin get up with gentle nudges.

The connection to Collin’s consciousness started to fade once the teenager began to shift back into his human form, a slow and somewhat painful process to watch since he was still getting the hang of it. Once the transformation was completed, his thoughts were entirely gone from the bond, taking the headache and dizziness away with them.

Kaya seemed immediately relieved by the absence.

“Do the consequences of your decisions bother you?” There was no venom in Nathan’s words either, but letting it slide didn't have to include forgetting.

His sister pretended to ignore the comment while he tried not to think about how much Collin’s thought process reminded him of his mate’s jumbled request before she passed out.

Kaya seemed surprised at the apathy and resignation that Nathan had felt come from his mate when she asked him to kill her, as opposed to the usual angry desperation of rogues who knew that failed attacks meant being deemed useless to their packs. 

Nathan wondered if she had shown other similarly unusual behavior earlier in the fight.

“I don't know if she did.” Kaya answered the question he didn't make, getting closer when he requested her to. “She's not pack and she's not my mate, all I get from her are words.”

“I know how Bridging works.” He replied. 

This form’s version of laughter was an irregular bark, and Kaya’s grin looked like an awkward display of teeth, but it was enough to make him feel better.

“What's the plan?” His sister asked, noticing how he stared at the beige wolf as if finally getting to terms with the situation.

“First,” He nuzzled his unconscious mate once again, they’d have to take her to Labaki before deciding anything else. “We take her to the Den.”


	2. Wait

Nathan considered himself a fairly patient person. He never lost his temper while training the pups of his pack, he waited three minutes to rinse out hair conditioner, and several of his victories in the bimonthly war games could be attributed to outlasting the other teams.

With that said, he also knew when his time was being wasted. 

They had managed to wake his mate up a couple times, but trying to get her to shift peacefully had proven to be just as ineffective as Kaya’s previous violent methods. The stray was too exhausted and out of reach to actually cooperate, almost as if this form was her default one.

Kaya was sick of it already, pacing frustrated under the heavy rain and glaring at the beige wolf as if the force of her annoyance alone could will a transformation. 

“C'mon, Sand,” She poked the other’s shoulder with her paw, leaving muddy prints wherever she touched “Don't be difficult.”

It was the third time she tried to get the nickname to stick, but, as fitting as it was, it had the same level of originality as calling someone ‘blondie’. Nathan would have laughed if he weren't so stressed.

He accepted defeat, weighing new options as he instinctively licked his mate’s wounds again.

Kaya’s bite on the wolf’s nape had stopped bleeding, but the gashes on her side still reopened every time she twisted in some way, not to mention the unmistakable cracking sound he heard after his attack.

He could already hear Labaki’s signature “I'm not a freaking veterinarian, you idiot” and the tsking sounds she'd make as he stared at his mate's body, processing how he'd carry her without compromising her injuries.

Sand, for lack of a proper name, was considerably smaller than him. But, like most of their kind, that still meant her body was roughly the size of a tiger’s, likely just as heavy.

“I can take her.” Kaya offered. 

She had several inches on him, proudly boasting the title of third biggest wolf in their pack, but he hated how lightly she was taking her recently-discovered pregnancy.

“You did too much already.” If it were up to him she wouldn't even had been patrolling tonight, but arguing with his older sister was an exercise in futility.

Her dismissal of his worry and some affection for it were the last thoughts he got from Kaya before their connection was broken by her shifting.

Carrying a wolf in human form would be impractical and exhausting, but opposable thumbs were just what they needed to at least get Sand properly on top of him. Kaya adjusted the wolf's neck and paws so they wouldn't be in an awkward position and once she was done, he was surprised by how light Sand actually felt on his back, too light even for her small size.

Judging by Kaya’s heavy stare, she was probably thinking the same thing.

“I'm with you.” His sister scratched behind his ears and he relaxed a little with the familiarly pleasant sensation. He felt how much she meant it once she was a wolf again.

 

They headed back home, Kaya leading the way and occasionally pausing to ensure all the moving didn't disturb Sand’s position on Nathan’s back.

He could feel his tiredness reflected on his sister and their shared eagerness to get home, but dashing through the woods in this weather while carrying another wolf would be an unnecessary challenge.

By the time they reached the Den, the rain had lightened and the first faint traces of sunlight appeared in the sky.

The quiet and sleepy rhythm that the house usually had at this time of dawn had been disturbed; from where he stood, Nathan could see lit up windows and hear conversation spilling from the open front door. 

He guessed most of the pack knew about his soulmate by now, but, instead of the excitement he once imagined he'd feel to share the moment with them, he just wanted to go back go bed. It was going to be a long day.

Mason, a thick-furrowed white wolf, waited for them at the porch. The sight would have been a relief if the skin of his elegant muzzle wasn't pulled to show a hint of teeth. Nathan felt some of Kaya’s guilt settling back in her while a low snarl came from the white wolf.

He and Kaya glared at each other, Collin’s involvement in the earlier fight permeated their minds as anxiety and anger flooded the bond.

Under normal circumstances Nathan would've let them solve the conflict between themselves, but having two of his betas disturbing the collective was out of the question when Sand’s invasion and the possible motives that lead her to attack loomed over their heads.

“Stop.” He didn't need a growl to add weight to the word.

Kaya took the interruption as an opportunity to shift back to her human form, effectively cutting the link to anyone’s thoughts, and to take shelter from the rain by Mason’s side on the porch.

Mason huffed, reluctant to obey, but slowly sat down, not bothering to stare at them under the lights on each side of the front door. His mind was too closed off for Nathan to pick up on anything other than the young man's current task of supervising the patrolling pairs or his characteristic overexposed vision, but he didn't need Bridging to know Mason’s worry about his mate, and his resentment towards Kaya would take some time to die.

“Collin’s fine. If that's what you're asking.” Mason’s thoughts withdrew further away from his reach. “How's yours?”

It took Nathan a couple of seconds to understand what he was talking about. He could feel the warmth of his own mate’s body on his back, the almost pleasant, if a little concerning, weight of her, and her quiet breathing. Her presence was as soothing as it was destabilizing.

Apart from Olivia, who didn't appear to be in any rush to feel the bond, Nathan was the last of his generation to find his other half. He had waited since his first full moon, eager and restless and, quite frankly feeling left out. Ten years waiting for the moment he'd finally meet his mate and it couldn't have been worse; she was injured and weak, and had nearly taken Collin’s life.

“Nate,” His sister's voice interrupted his thoughts before Mason could reply “The obvious time pressure.”

Mason snickered, his bitterness towards Kaya forgotten for a second while they passed by him to go through the front door. If Nathan didn't know better, he would have interpreted Mason’s urging nudge as a sign of affection.

Kaya guided him into the house, a deliberate frown on her face as she pushed furniture out of the way and kept curious people from probing too much, from getting too close.

The protective instincts he usually felt towards his pack seemed to have extended tenfold to the wolf on his back, the presence of so many people made him uncomfortable for the first time in ages and he sped up to get to Labaki before it all got too overwhelming, before Sand could bleed out over him.

Two hours later and Nathan was still stressed out of his mind, pacing around the back of the Den and glaring down at the city below as if some sort of creature could rise from the streets and tear the forest from the mountain. He supposed Kaya was right to forbid him from patrolling in this state, but he desperately wished for something to do, anything that could take his mind away from where Doctor Labaki and Brianna currently took care of Sand’s injuries. 

Nathan also wished he could hear them from his spot, but all he could do to ease his mind was let his thoughts be muffled by everyone else's. He concentrated on the other wolves that patrolled the territory. In came the smell of gas, smoke, and asphalt from the minds of the ones closer to the roads, the sounds from human activity in the city, the forest all around them…

It wasn't enough to silence his uncertainty, but at least it was something to keep his mind busy, a distraction. He drowned his own consciousness until he couldn't feel time anymore.

Theo's hesitant approach brought him back to the present, a pair of soft footsteps that turned into four in a heartbeat. Nathan straightened his stance, waited for him to get closer.

Theodore sat by his side and tapped a gentle warning into their bond; thoughts that made him aware that hiding in the collective mind of the pack only served to make others anxious too. Nathan knew that he should be better than this, but the comfort that came from surrounding himself with his people was hard to resist, besides, it was good to know what was going on outside of the Den.

“How's Sand?” Nathan begrudgingly asked. Kaya would be proud.

“We put her in your room, like you told us to.” Theo glanced at the house behind them. “Brianna still thinks it's a bad idea.”

“Brianna isn't a werewolf.” Nathan might have been more willing to comply if the witch had actually given him an explanation, but she was cryptic as ever. “Mason said-”

“I know.” Theo had been there when, three years ago, the only thing that managed to calm Mason down from his post-surgery haste had been a shirt with Collin’s scent. “But they were already friends, that girl is a stranger.”

“She's my mate.” He had waited far too long to listen now.

“Nathan...” Theo nudged him on the shoulder, an unspoken warning against his blind enthusiasm hanging in the word.

“Just give me a report, dude.” He was in no mood for debate and, even if he didn't use his status as alpha to enforce the command, it was clear from his tone that it wasn't a request.

“Asshole.” Theo shook his head and nodded at the Den. “I'll explain on the way, but to sum it up: she's been through some shit.”

That didn't sound comforting at all, but then again Theo rarely was.

Nathan shut his eyes with a nod, mind blanking as the pain from the shift coursed through him way too fast to properly process. And if he made a sound while his whole body reshaped itself, Theo couldn't really judge him for it, not when he looked so uncomfortably out of breath.

“Start talking.” Nathan pushed the back door, hand still shaking with the leftover ache in his limbs and the pins and needles unders his skin.

“Well, for starters...” Theo sighed, following him down the hallway and up the stairs. “Labaki said your mate would be dead if she were human, so that's fun.”

Nathan choked on air “Did I-"

“No, dude, relax.” Theo touched his back, pushing Nathan to walk when he stopped “It's mostly old fractures.” That wasn't much better. “I mean, Kaya didn't exactly go easy on her, but she didn't break her ribs, that's for sure.”

“Wait, was it m-"

“Relax, Nathan.” Theo repeated, his already deep voice seemed even lower as he tried to sound soothing. His hand moved up to Nathan’s shoulder. “Those are healed already. Old, like I said. And as far as I know, the broken leg isn't on you either, not entirely at least.”

“So it  _ is _ broken.” Nathan already suspected, but the confirmation didn't hurt less. He wished he had felt the bond before dragging her downhill.

“Yup.” They stopped in front of his room, the closed door feeling more like a wall even as Nathan glared at the hinges. “And, uh, Brianna had to use double the usual amount of herbs to force a shift, so… yeah.”

“Okay.” Nathan sighed, pressed his forehead against the door, and placed his hand around cold knob, too nervous to open it.

“Go in.” Theo squeezed his shoulder, sensing how scared he was of entering his own room. “It's your mate, not a vampire.”

“I think I'd be more relaxed with a vampire.” Nathan scoffed at his own words.

“Should I call my aunt?”

“I'm serious.” He forced himself to open the door, catching sight of Theo’s grin before waving goodbye.

“So am I.” Theo’s voice was muffled by the door, but he still sounded the exact opposite of serious, the little fucker. “Rude.”

Nathan looked around. His bedroom was lighter than he expected, the lack of sleep somehow had made his brain forget it was already morning, that his midnight snack had been interrupted by Theodore’s howl.

He took a deep breath, the usual scent of clean laundry, books, and leftover food was now muffled by medicine and herbs. Aconitum had him twitching his nose, enough to make him uncomfortable without giving a headache, and he could barely catch his mate's skin underneath it all. 

Sand was asleep on his bed, that much he had expected, her broken leg had a splint on it and was carefully placed over a cushion. There was a bandage on her shoulder and neck as well, and he didn't doubt that there were even more under the yellow dress he recognized as Kaya’s.

His first instinct was to lie down by her side, bask in her presence even if she reeked of herbs, and touch her until she smelled of him instead. That would've been terribly invasive, though, so he settled for pulling a chair from near his desk to drag it close to his bed.

“You really know how to make an entrance, right?” Nathan sat down on the chair, taking her cold hand in his, and pushing disorderly strands of her black hair from her face.

He was met with more injuries, a low growl forming in his throat at the sight of a scar that looked especially brutal. It was a single line, a deep cut running from the outer corner of her right eye to the edge of her bruised jaw.

A silver burn, he recognized. It looked more like a deliberate drag than the slash from a blow, and though he knew most hunters used silver as their main weapon, it didn't seem like the kind of thing they would do.

Everyone had heard the stories: life was tough for lone wolves, they were easy targets, and for rogues, their packs were competitive and chaotic, but the marks on his mate’s body seemed like too much, too cruel.

He tried not to think of their origin, burying all his questions and all his worry to keep the wolf at bay, making an effort to focus on her features underneath the bruised mess. It was practically impossible, there were traces of violence everywhere he looked.

Her lips, shapely and full, were a little chapped, and the lower one had a deep cut close to the corner; there was a tiny scar on the bridge of her low nose; another over one of her thick eyebrows, and if their shape didn't already make her look slightly pissed off, then the greenish bruise over her left eye certainly would have, even while she rested.

Yet, somehow, neither of her wounds could take away from how pretty she was. In fact, as much as he would prefer if she was healthy and awake, he couldn't help but feel a little pride that at least it seemed like she had put up a good fight.

Nathan stared at the grey sky through the curtainless windows, taking another deep breath to calm his wolf down. He had many questions, so much to learn about his mate, and so much to show, but, just like in the past ten years, all he could do was wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So hmmm... yeah *shrug*

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Comments would be appreciated :]


End file.
